Bach C minor Fugue WTC I (Need advice)

[chapplin]

Hey everyone, new to this forum. So I'm not sure of whether it lurks alot of trolls around here or not. So I'll make it clear that this is a work in progress. And the video includes a major slipup in the end with some small slips during the piece aswell.
I've been playing piano for about 2 years now, and this is my first Baroque piece ever really.

After 2 weeks or so the notes are starting to fit under my fingers, but I have no idea what to "make of the piece". Any tips, or critiques, or compliments are most welcome.
And I'm sorry if you have heard this piece so many times and I slaughter it!

PS. I play by memory, that's why the ending is so brutally wrong.

Sincerely,
Your humble afraid beginner

[49410enrique]

congrats ! this is one it's way. i think the best way to'make' sense of the fugue and the score (in most of these pieces at least) is to think about the piece in a linear fashion vs vertical. i.e. don't look at how the notes line up on the page, i.e bass to treble, instead look at the lines, if i recall the c minor fugue from wtc is is 3 voice fugue so you picked a good one to start with. there's i think at least one 5 voice fugue in book i i believe (perhaps more).

so i suggest taking the score away from the piano and look for and follow the individual voices as they make their entrance and follow them , you might even make a photocopy and get three different color highlighters or pens and highlight the indivual voices color coding them so to speak so you have a clear visual understanding of the polyphany, this is especially helpful in busy sections and even more especially so when a middle voice sometimes will jump from one hand to the next mid-statement (i do know recall immediately if this one has such a situation but expect it soon enough in these pieces).

now you need to get an aural sense of the movement of the voices, i would isolate a single voice and in time ,purposely slow tempo, begin following it through out the piece, pay special attention to accidentals, usually there is an expressive dissoance associated with them or a modulation which in the harmonic scheme also has some emotional weight.

once you can play each line evenly, smoothly, with phrasing, begin putting them together, i would try two voice and different combos, then put them all together, the singing line should sound no different when you let them all 'sing together' it should sound to your ear like three little hands  independently playing their part and they just happend to line up nicely in spots.

hope that helps.

[birba]

Oh, come on!  It wasn't all that bad.  You kept a steady tempo, you brought out the voices very well, good use of the pedal.  and I liked the last few measures when you weren't so sure of the memory.  So there were some slip-ups.  Who cares?  
I liked basically the way you phrased the theme, up to a certain point.  
Here's the way I see it:  first three notes under a slur (c-b-c), then staccato the next two notes (g-a-flat) but not really staccato.  sort of a non-legato.  (like bubble gum stuck to the keys, as enrique puts it!)  the next three: under one slur (legato) the next two, non-legato.  The following c-b-c legato, d-non legato- then f-g-a-flat-g-f-e-flat legato.  Then try to follow this phrasing whenever the theme appears in the fugue.
Bach isn't easy.  Funny. it's one of the first composers they give to beginners.
Anyway, for only 2 years, that was really very good!

[johnlewisgrant]

Brave to post this.   

You can get this fugue up to standard.    You have the chops.

The trick with Bach is to find a recording that you love and copy it in your mind and your playing. 

Then you move on, and do your own thing.

If you're interested in an idealized version of this fugue, start with a totally free version by me at Piano Society.   Then move on.   Find in your mind and, by force, under your fingers some approach to this piece that brings it totally alive for you. 

Copy it shamelessly (I'm trying to be emphatic) and then go one better.

Cheers,

Great effort!

John Lewis Grant

[j_menz]

I agree with enrique and birba.  Also, let me congratulate you on getting this far in so short a time.

Since this is your first fugue, you will find it useful to try and seperate out the 3 seperate voices and identify them in the score (in this case it's reasonably straightforward). In your playing, you had a pretty clear idea of the first one, a sporadic idea of the second (mostly where the first was not doing anything) and almost no idea of even the existence of the third. In a fugue, each voice has equal importance , though one may dominate at a particular moment.  Where they are the same tune, they should be played in the same manner (at least in this first attempt at a fugue - you may choose to very that when you have a clearer idea of the form).  Have a listen to the way they echo (and also play with) each other and bring that out.

For a first fugue, though, a commendable effort. 

[chapplin]

Thanks everyone, these are great advice!
I respect your opinions alot, will take all of your thoughts with me to the practice room, printed out.

Wish you all well.